Motorsports: Prasad tops in feature race

Chennai-based 21-year-old Vishnu Prasad, winner of FMSCI Driver of the Year award last season, underlined his credentials by winning the first race in the FB02 class in the first round of the JK Racing India Series here Saturday.

Starting the race in pole position in the BMW engine-powered single seater, Vishnu dominated the race to win the 15-lap event in 16 minutes, 44.861 seconds, ahead of Akhil Rabindra and Nayan Chatterjee.

Akhil finished 11.846 seconds behind in 16.56.707, while Nayan, making his debut in this class, clocked 16:59.429.

Vishnu said: "It was definitely a good race and everything went pretty well during practice. It was a close race between me, Akhil (Rabindra) and Nayan (Chatterjee).

"Nayan has done well considering that it is his first year and as the weekend goes along, tomorrow is going to be tougher for me."

The Volkswagen Polo R Cup also had its share of excitement and thrills, with two crashes in the first lap forcing a restart. There was more drama in store as the provisional winner, Karminder Pal Singh, was penalized 30 seconds by the Stewards for overtaking under the yellow flag and ultimately slipped to ninth position.

Angad Singh Matharoo emerged winner of the 15-lap race in a time of 19:27.254, followed by Anshul Manoj Shah and Lee Keshav Gupta.

In the first race of the day, featuring the Formula LGB4 single-seaters, Diljith T Shaji led a 1-2 finish for Dark Don Racing by emerging winner in 18:38.073, followed by team-mate Sudarshan Rao and Meco Racing's Rahul Rangaswamy.

Results:

JK Racing India Series FB02: Vishnu Prasad (16:44.861) 1; Akhil Rabindra (16:56.707) 2; Nayan Chatterjee (16:59.429) 3.

VW Polo R Cup: Angad Singh Matharoo (19:27.254) 1; Anshul Manoj Shah (19:29.572) 2; Lee Keshav Gupta (19:30.195) 3.

Formula LGB 4: Diljith T Shaji (Dark Don Racing) 1 (18:38.073); Sudarshan Rao (Dark Don Racing) 2 (18:45.157); Rahul Rangaswamy (Meco Racing) 3 (18:55.203).

--Indo-Asian News Servvice

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